Technology Spotlight - Digital Defense

Company’s Factor4 device combines proximity, smart card and biometric technology on a self-enrolling and self-authenticating biocard.

By Paul Grossinger

Republished with permission
Security Products & Technology News
March 2006 - PDF VERSION

Imagine an access control card thatoffers everything you ever wanted ina card and more. Proximity flexibility? Check. Smart card functionality? Check. Biometric capabilities. Check. Self-enrollment? Check. Self-authenticating? Check. Rechargeable powersource? Check.

Now, set your eyes on Factor4, a self-enrolling biocard and wireless biometric proximity security device that grants secure building and computer access through the use of a digital certificate. It requires no centralized database or external software, thereby protecting the user’s privacy at all times and,according to its creator, Digital Defense, guarantees complete biometric privacy through a patent-pending self-enrollment process and on-card 1:1 authentication technology.

Once Factor4 biocard’s 1:1 on-card authenticator identifies its unique user, it wirelessly transmits an authentication certificate up to a distance of 10 cm. No other person can authenticate the Factor4 biocard, and it is able to hold numerous certificates of authentication for other access or transaction requirements, as well as secure documents and digital images. It also works with all types of readers and in any card management system.

“A lot of talk in the marketplace over the last 10 years has been: Can anyone [develop a] self-authenticating card that is not transferring a template and that does not require proprietary readers,” says Richard Ouaknine, vice-president of sales and business development of the Omaha, Neb.,company, who is based in New York, N.Y. “So what we did was build an entire biometric infrastructure on a card — we enroll to the card (e.g., fingerprints), we authenticate to the card and the card transmits [whatever the protocol may be] upon user authentication.

“What we have done,” he adds, “is,in a card size form factor, put a full processor, 125 KHz and 13.56 MHz radios, apower source, two antennas, up to a 1GB in memory and a fingerprint sensor.”

Here’s how the device works:Factor4 biocard users register theircard and then self-enroll their fingerprints by placing a finger or thumb on the biocard’s scan engine. This generates a unique digital certificate directly onto the card. Once a Factor4 biocard user is registered and enrolled,only then can the industry’s on-card 1:1 authentication process take place through the wireless transmission of a multi-frequency band sending only the digital certificate. A user’s biometric data never leaves the Factor4 biocard. Because of this 1:1 authentication, the stored biometric information cannot be breached and duplicated if the bio-card is lost or stolen.
“The beauty of the technology is that there are no passive elements on the card,” adds Ouaknine. “The card is not being read by the reader — it is telling the reader information that [users] want it to know. The card is being placed in the reader field, the card is waking up, looking for the authentication from the user and then the card is transmitting the appropriate protocol (i.e., code) for the application, whatever that may be.”

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Company’s Factor4 device combines proximity, smart card and biometric technology on a self-enrolling and self-authenticating biocard.